Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, commented that about 8,000 of his 75,000 employees tested positive for Covid-19 in the last four weeks, absences that clouded the financial results of the airline in the midst of a Christmas holiday season with very high demand, announced CNBC.
The airline reported a loss for the quarter and anticipated another for the first three months of the year due to the contagious Omicron variant, but is optimistic because they expect travel begins to recover again at the end of February.
Airlines in the United States have been affected by winter storms and crews infected by Omicron, which caused more than 20,000 flight cancellations in the country in the middle of the Christmas holidays and the first weeks of January.
Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, shared on Monday that 3,000 of your close to 70,000 American employees were also infected with Covid.
Fortunately for the Americans Cancellations have dropped significantly in recent days.
Delta has said that its operation has stabilized and that only 1% of their flights were canceled during the last week due to Omicron. Its executive director added that the employees who tested positive “did not have significant health problems.”
At the end of last year Delta modified its leave policy for employees with Covid-20, granting them five days of pay, and two additional days if they test positive on the fifth day. Previously, staff had 10 days of paid leave for Covid infections, in addition to regular sick days.
The measure was adopted after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidelines for Covid quarantine, halving its recommendation to five days.
However, Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, criticized the policy in a tweet: “(Delta) is telling workers from all work groups that they must come to work with symptoms, even if someone in the household tested positive.” He also commented that positive workers were asked to “come to work after 5 days if the fever is below 100.9, even if they still test positive.” .
Delta responded with a letter, noting that the union is trying to organize the airline’s flight attendants, as well as defending the policy and saying it was based on CDC guidance.